


Strawberries Don't Have Stripes

by Bittersweet



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Dallas Stars, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 05:58:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7923229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittersweet/pseuds/Bittersweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyler de-ages. Jamie takes care of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strawberries Don't Have Stripes

“Hey Ty,” Jamie said coming back into the living room from the kitchen where he’d been making them peanut butter and honey sandwiches. “What are you drawing?” he set the plate on the coffee table and crouched down next to Tyler.

“Strawberries,” the toddler answered not looking up from the paper.

“They have stripes.”

Tyler stared up at him his eyes wide.

“Strawberries don’t have stripes.”

“Mine do,” Tyler said with an adorable self-assurance.

The mansion’s doorbell rang and Jamie went to answer it, the dogs beating him there and bouncing excitedly around his legs.

“Hey Jordie, Patrick,” he greeted his brother and their teammate. “What are you guys doing here?” He caught Cash’s collar as the Lab tried to knock Jordie over.

“It’s poker night,” Jordie explained.

Shit. He had completely forgotten about Tyler’s Wednesday night tradition.

“So are you going to let us in or what?” Sharp asked grinning.

“Um look guys, Ty isn’t feeling great—” he was interrupted by a slightly shrill shriek of his brother’s and Sharp’s names and then the toddler was past him, hugging his visitors legs in turn.

“Jamie?” They looked to him for an explanation.

“Come see my drawings!” Tyler urged.

“He’s been like this since this morning,” Jamie explained following as Tyler led the way back to the living room. “I know I should have told someone but I was hoping he’d just turn back…”

“No one’s going to blame you for this Jamie,” Jordie said as Sharp admired Tyler’s drawings.

“But maybe it is my fault, I mean he must have been unhappy to—”

“There could be hundreds of reasons that might have caused this,” Jordie interrupted. “And I can guarantee that not one of them is because he’s not happy with you.”

“I don’t know Jordie, Ty’s been acting kind of strange the past couple of weeks—” he was interrupted again, the doorbell ringing for the second time that night.

“That’s probably the rest of the guys,” Jordie said. “I’ll tell them the game’s off.”

“Thanks.” Jamie headed over to save Sharp from Tyler who was talking a mile a minute and eating simultaneously. “Chew with your mouth closed Ty,” he scolded sitting down on the other side of Tyler.

“It’s okay,” Sharp grinning. “I’m used to Segs’ bad habits.”

“He really is a toddler!” Faksa’s voice declared as the other five memebers of Tyler’s poker group joined them in the living room.

Jamie glared at his brother as Tyler climbed over him in a hurry to greet the newcomers.

“Sorry,” Jordie said with a “what could I do?” sort of shrug. “I told them the game was cancelled but they wanted to know why.”

“Ty’s going to have to go to bed soon guys,” Jamie said. “You should probably go.”

“But I’m not sleepy,” Tyler whined turning big brown eyes on Jamie. “And we’re supposed to play a game, can’t they stay?”

“Yeah can’t we stay Jamie?” Hamhuis asked adding his own pleading stare, the rest of his teammates following suit. 

Jamie folded under the pressure. “All right, but just for an hour.”

 

“Pick up four and the new colour is green,” Oduya said grinning at Hemsky who had been on his last card.

“Sh—ugar,” Hemsky swore as he picked up the requisite cards. “How long have you been waiting to use that card?”

“I don’t know what you’re taking about,” Oduya said innocently.

“I think we’re being hustled guys,” Spezza joked.

Jamie looked down at Tyler as his teammates continued their banter. Tyler’s head had dropped against Jamie’s arm and he could feel his warm even breaths through his shirt.

“Okay guys,” Jamie said. “Finish this hand and then it’s time to go.” It was already an hour later than he had agreed to and he knew there was no way Tyler was going to go to   
bed while they had visitors.

“…not sleepy,” Tyler mumbled sitting up and struggling to focus on the game. He sagged back against Jamie’s chest a second latter.

The guys finished the hand quickly, Oduya the undisputed victor, and Tyler woke up enough to wave sleepily as they left.

“They are so cute together,” Hamhuis was saying as they walked to their cars.

“And it’s the first poker night where we’ve gone more than five minutes without Ty telling us how awesome Jamie is,” Faksa joked.

They moved out of Jamie’s hearing and he closed the door quietly, looking down at the sleeping toddler in his arms. Tyler talked about him at his poker games? He was careful about giving Tyler his space, he didn’t want him to feel like he was being smothered, so he had never been to one of his game nights before but maybe…

“Hey, you want me to stay and help with anything?” Jordie interrupted Jamie’s chain of thought, coming out of the kitchen after getting rid of the last of the dishes that poker night created.

“No, thanks Jordie. I think we’re just going to go to bed.” He headed upstairs as his brother left. Tyler was fast asleep and didn’t even twitch as Jamie changed him into the Spiderman pajamas they had bought earlier and tucked him into Tyler’s king sized bed. He stretched out on the other side of the bed wanting to watch Tyler sleep for a few minutes before going down and cleaning up the drawing supplies and other things that Tyler had spread around the house during the day. He sighed as his eyes drifted closed. He really should get up. He was asleep a second later.

 

Jamie woke with a start the next morning, bright sunlight streaming into the room. He stretched and rolled over so he could see the other side of the bed. Tyler wasn’t there. Jamie bolted out of bed and hurried out of the room to look for him. The mansion wasn’t exactly designed with children in mind and he had to take several deep breaths to make himself calm down as he imagined Tyler falling down the stairs or getting outside and drowning in the pool or… He cut the thoughts off and headed downstairs, thinking that a toddler would probably go to the living room to watch cartoons. He hadn’t seen the dogs either, so they must be with Tyler and he knew they wouldn’t let anything happen to their owner.

He passed by the kitchen on his way and breathed a sigh of relief to see Tyler, fully grown again, standing at the sink, the dogs at his feet.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack not being there when I woke up,” Jamie scolded as he walked into the kitchen and hugged his boyfriend who was washing last nights’ dishes. 

“Sorry,” Tyler apologized turning his head to kiss Jamie. “You looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to disturb you. The coffee’s fresh if you want some.”

“Thanks.” Jamie grabbed a mug from the cupboard and filled it. “So what was with the sudden trip back to childhood?” he asked trying to sound casual.

Tyler froze for a second then finished rinsing the glass he’d been washing and set it carefully in the rack to dry. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he said grabbing a towel to dry his hands on.

Jamie’s heart started beating faster at the serious tone in Tyler’s voice. “Yeah?” He clutched his coffee mug tightly.

“I know you like to have your own space and it’s not like we’d have to spend every minute together so nothing would really change—”

Jamie frowned, trying to figure out what Tyler was talking about. Why did he think that Jamie needed his space? And what did this have to do with him turning into a toddler?

“—and this place really is too big for just one person.”

“Ty slow down.” Jamie was pretty sure he’d missed something in Tyler’s ramble. “What is it you’re trying to ask me?”

Tyler took a deep breath. “I bought you a ring. It’s upstairs.”

“A—” Jamie stared at Tyler. “Do you mean… are you asking me to marry you?”

Tyler nodded.

“Yes,” Jamie said putting down his coffee and kissing Tyler. “You’re crazy if you though my answer would be anything else.”

Tyler blushed. “Well we have been together for two years and we’ve never even talked about moving in together. I thought you might think I was rushing things asking you to marry me. That’s why I turned into a toddler, I couldn’t handle the thought that you might say no and you’re such a softie with kids that there was no way you’d get rid of me then.”

“So what convinced you to turn back?”

“I couldn’t stay a toddler forever, I’d miss hockey and other things.” He grinned at Jamie.

Jamie laughed. “I have a confession to make. I thought you wanted your own space which is why I never brought up living together. When you de-aged I thought it was because you wanted to break up with me.”

“So we’re both idiots,” Tyler said.

“Yep,” Jamie agreed. “Want to start moving my stuff over here?”

“Later,” Tyler said with a wicked grin. “There are other things I want to do with my future husband first.”


End file.
